Considering the parameters for Time-Life Music's Singers & Songwriters series of two-disc compilations of soft rock music centered in the 1970s, the volume covering the last two years of that decade is almost as good as it could be. The criteria include a limit of 24 tracks, all of which must have been big hit singles, and one can cite only the omissions of Rickie Lee Jones' "Chuck E.'s in Love" and Melissa Manchester's "Don't Cry Out Loud" in the selections found here. (Of course, it also would have been nice to have had something from Jackson Browne's Running on Empty album, but since Browne is absent from the entire series, one can only assume that he doesn't allow the use of his work on compilations like this.) Of course, the criteria can be questioned; a two-CD set running only about 96 minutes is a bit skimpy (though this is offset by the price of $20 plus shipping/handling), and by expanding the search to album tracks a better picture of the singer/songwriter scene of the late '70s could have been achieved. But the material here holds up surprisingly well, perhaps because major figures like Paul Simon and Carly Simon, who disappeared from the 1976-1977 volume, are back, and because there are some strong newcomers, such as Dire Straits and Warren Zevon. The material also hangs together well, which may have something to do with the intermingling of the writers and performers. Kenny Loggins co-writes "What a Fool Believes" for the Doobie Brothers with the Doobies' own Michael McDonald, who also co-writes Carly Simon's "You Belong to Me." On his own cut, "Whenever I Call You 'Friend'," Loggins is joined on vocals by Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks, who also helps out on John Stewart's "Gold," which features guitar work by the Mac's Lindsey Buckingham. Buckingham and Christine McVie, a third member of Fleetwood Mac, sing on former Mac member Robert Welch's remake of his old Mac song "Sentimental Lady." And, of course, there's an actual Fleetwood Mac track, "Think About Me." Beyond these intermural efforts, there are also stylistic similarities between, for example, Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street" and Al Stewart's "Time Passages," both lush pop productions with distinctive saxophone parts and Scottish singers. There are, perhaps, too many dreary ballads by minor singers such as Dan Hill and Paul Davis, but on the whole the album contains a good collection of meticulously produced pop. This highly commercial music may be a far cry from the intimate, detailed work of the singer/songwriters who started the movement in the early '70s, but it's often moving nevertheless. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide